


Something Worth Waiting For

by StripedScribe



Series: Be Brave [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: AU, Angst, M/M, Mermaids, Minor Injuries, One Shot, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 22:47:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28678371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StripedScribe/pseuds/StripedScribe
Summary: Kidnapped, used against his will, Bucky rescues Steve after the Hellicarrier crash, and they make a promise to keep each other safe.A follow up to Be Brave
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Series: Be Brave [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2101923
Kudos: 11





	Something Worth Waiting For

He dragged the man, his boy, from the water, and waited. 

Waited as around him, two-legs scurried around, shouting and talking about the machine, the fight. A hurry, to get it cleared, to get it hidden away. Whatever was on there was important, he knew that much. He flinched as they tore the crashed machines apart, his mind telling him to flee. But he needed to stay. Finally, after so many years, his boy was alive, he knew he hadn’t died in the fights. And with the memory of the boy, his mind drifted to his family.

He couldn’t even begin to imagine where they had ended up, too many years gone by, finding them seemed impossible. Finding them alive, even less so. Not when he didn’t even know where he was now, where the human monsters had taken him to. And the time, so many blanks, missions where he lost himself. Hydra he knew they called themselves, and him the Asset, this monster whose voice had now quietened in the corner of his mind. A tiny chant of murder, swiftly overcome by the overbearing feeling of love, hope, warmth. But a tiny voice who he knew could be awakened by those words.

On the beach, the boy started to stir, eyes blinking open in confusion. And then bolting upright, eyes scanning behind him, looking for danger. Dismayed, Bucky realised he didn’t know his name, couldn’t call out to him. Captain America they called him, when they sent him on his mission.

“Captain?” He hesitantly asked, hoping for friendship, for recognition. Inching closer, he lifted his head above the water, scanning for any strangers to be too close, for any danger of them spotting him. “Captain? Are you okay?” 

The confusion on his boy’s face spread, as he looked around and behind him, before his eyes landed on the water. “I’m okay, thanks.” He patted his suit, seemingly looking for something, and finding it. “Wait, what are you doing in there? I won’t hurt you, thank you for pulling me out of there. What’s your name?” Standing up, he moved closer to the water, a hand outstretched as though to offer assistance. 

Bucky could see the moment he was recognised, as the hand dropped. “I know you. You, you were in my dreams growing up, how are you here? You’re real? You’re beautiful.”In any other moment, he would be rapidly falling even further in love, but fear suddenly gripped Bucky, and he knew by now Hydra would have spotted his disappearance, assumed him dead for not returning, or broken. He needed saving.

“I need help. Please, I know you don’t know me, but I’ve been brave for too long, and Hydra are after me. I can’t go back there. I love you and I don’t even know your name, but help me please.”

"You're the Asset. You’re their secret." He took a deep breath. "Okay, okay, yes I'll help, of course I'll help, how?"

"Quickly, I don't know, I don't know anywhere safe. I think, I think they might have put a tracker or something in my arm, it hums, it's something of your two-legs creations, I can't imagine what it does.” Moving closer to the shore, he let the Captain take his arm, softly prodding the metal under his skin.

"I can't imagine it will be pretty, but you want that out quickly? And now?" 

"Please. Don't let them take me back." A pleading tone had worked its way into his voice, the words trying to break apart.

It was messy, and quick, and a small cloud of blood spread in the water, before the Captain, “Please, Steve, my name’s Steve,” quickly wrapped it in some cloth. The tracker was thrown, far across the water, and soon disappeared, lost to the depths. Bucky felt he had so much more he had to warn Steve about, the words, the Asset hiding in his mind, but not now, he told himself, not yet. Safety first. Safety, in whatever form that would take hiding with Steve. 

He had so many questions. And Steve must have the same for him too. They had both seemingly ignored it, but when they touched for the first time, skin to skin as Steve tore Hydra’s tool from his arm, there was something electric, and a feeling of being complete. Of safety and home. Bucky knew he’d follow Steve, whatever it took, now he’d found him again. 

“I’ve got an apartment, off the books, no one knows about it. But I don’t know how to get you there. How do you breathe, do you need to be in the water?” 

“Yes.” Bucky pushed himself up, holding his breath to show gills, wrapping around his ribs. As he slipped back down, he grinned at Steve’s silence and faint blush, before the captain shook his head. “How close can we get following the river?” 

“Not close enough. We can get a little further, but it’ll be a trek after that, and I don’t know if I can run fast enough carrying you to get you to safety. Unless I can find something to keep you… Wait, is getting you home even going to help? We’ll just be stuck there instead. Water, water, safety. Boat. I can buy a boat. Okay.” He paced back and forth a little, taking a small humming box out of his pocket, looking at it, then putting it away. “No, can’t do that. It’s got to be just us. Savings, not him.” 

“Okay, first, never caught your name in all of that.”

_Asset, Soldier, Pet._ _James, Barnes._ “Bucky.”

“Change of plan Bucky. We’ll find somewhere downstream you can hide for a bit, whilst I go and get some money and things. Then I’ll buy a boat - I’ll buy a boat, and we’ll get far away. I’ll let my friends know I’m lying low for a bit, we’ve just released a lot of dangerous information anyway, we’ll all be hiding until we know who and what’s safe, Hydra’s been chasing us for a while.” 

“I don’t know what to say, I’m so out of depth, and that, that seems like a lot for a stranger.”

"I know you, I don't really know how, but I know you Bucky, and I need you to be safe. I promise, we'll get out here."


End file.
